Indentical twins - in the animal world

[Miss Inquiry]

This question came up after a couple of glasses of wine over dinner, apologies if it is a bit off the wall.
Can animals be born with an identical twin? Do a litter of puppies come from the same embryo, making them all twins? If a dalmation has identical twins, do the dalmations have identical markings?

[kazxe]

I am not sure about the identical twin bit but i know that pups from the same litter can have different fathers - never knew how though!!

[Lonnie]

This is an answer to an identical question in 'experts.com'

Answer
Identical twins (one egg twins) do occur in other mammals especially in cats. Twins occur among sheep and cattle. These larger mammals (like people) usually only have a single birth and when they have two they are usually twins.
I owned a pair of twin cats years ago. Their markings were absolutely identical but had completely different personalities.

[wildwood]

They certainly can. In fact, the female nine-banded Armadillo only releases one egg when coming into breeding condition and, when fertilised, splits into up to four seperate zygotes thus resulting in multiple identical young. This is the norm for armadillos. By other mammals identical multiple births are accidental.